Steve Quayle News Alerts

Nov. 5, 2002
By DON BEHM

The violent earthquake that shook Alaska's interior also vibrated Wisconsin's bedrock, clouding residential wells with dirt loosened by the jolt.

"My neighbor actually thought there was an alligator in the pond. My neighbor's son went out there and said, 'It ain't no alligator.' The water was going back and forth for about a half-hour. It was kind of spooky. - - Dan Musmanno, 51, of the New Orleans suburb of Belle Chasse

"It does not take much energy to agitate a well." - - Brett Ketter, seismograph technician at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Well and pump contractors in Ozaukee, Jefferson, Dane and St. Croix counties were among those reporting complaints of dark, cloudy water following the quake Sunday that caused rock slides north of Anchorage and unnerved residents as far south as Louisiana.

The 7.9-magnitude quake, centered 90 miles south of Fairbanks, shut down the trans-Alaska pipeline, cracked highways and shook homes.

"I haven't heard of anybody feeling the quake here, but the quake's energy vibrated bedrock and suspended sediment in well water," said Brett Ketter, a seismograph technician with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's geosciences department. "It does not take much energy to agitate a well."

The 30-second quake reached out to roil the surface of ponds and bayous in southern Louisiana, and water splashed from pools in suburban New Orleans, more than 3,000 miles from Alaska.

"My neighbor actually thought there was an alligator in the pond," said Dan Musmanno, 51, of the New Orleans suburb Belle Chasse. "My neighbor's son went out there and said, 'It ain't no alligator.' The water was going back and forth for about a half-hour. It was kind of spooky."

Musmanno said the waves in his pond came up 7 or 8 inches and water sloshed out of his pool.

"When you have an earthquake of this size, it generates what we call surface waves," said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. He said waves of energy travel through the Earth's crust and cause disturbances in water.

On Seattle's Lake Union, more than 1,400 miles south of the epicenter, waves shook some houseboats loose from their moorings and slammed them into docks.

A moderate earthquake that shook Nebraska earlier Sunday did not have enough force to jostle bedrock in Wisconsin, Ketter said.

Art Liebau, co-owner of Liebau-Laun Inc. in Mequon, talked to a dozen or more well owners on Monday morning, all complaining of dirty water late Sunday afternoon. Each of their wells is drilled into limestone bedrock in the southeastern corner of the city, he said.

Liebau immediately guessed the cause of their problem after he learned of the Alaskan quake. He was first introduced to a distant quake's effect on groundwater here in 1964.

That year, after a violent earthquake jolted Prince William Sound in Alaska, Liebau responded to complaints of dirty water in Germantown and Mequon.

This time, Liebau advised his customers to connect a hose to an outdoor faucet and allow water to run for at least an hour, or whenever sediment particles were no longer visible.

"Fill a glass up with water and look at it," he recommended. If the sediment is not flushed out of the well after an hour, then Liebau suggests contacting a licensed well or pump service.

The well driller's theory of the earthquake causing dirty water was seconded by Adam Hogan, a hydrogeologist with the state Department of Natural Resources in Fitchburg.

"It's happening with bedrock wells all over the state," Hogan said. Most of the affected wells appear to be in sandstone aquifers, he said.

The rock shakes as it transfers the quake's energy. Then sediment in fractures of the bedrock is disturbed, and the sediment can become suspended in well water, Hogan explained.

Early Monday morning, Hogan had been contacted by well contractors from Fort Atkinson in Jefferson County, Verona in Dane County and Brooklyn in Green County. All had responded to complaints of dirty water.

Hogan also recommended that well owners with the problem test their water.

Residential wells should be tested for coliform bacteria at least once a year or whenever there is a change in the appearance or odor of the water, he said. The presence of coliform bacteria indicates potential contamination with disease-causing organisms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/nov02/93234.asp